Voltron: Defender of the Universe – Game Review (2011)

Thanks to our friends over at THQ for sending me a review copy of their newest release, Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

THQ has given fans of Voltron a twin stick shooter, in the vein of the classic arcade game, Jackal. You get to pick any of the five Lions at the beginning of the stage and with a sweet intro to the mission thanks to THQ using actual clips from the original Voltron animated series you are ready to bring a whole bunch of pain to the forces of King Zarkon.

Each of the Lions have different stats, some have better Melee abilities and Armor, swiftness and elemental attacks, etc. but each one really gives you the joy of controlling a couple hundred tons of awesomeness in Lion form.

They’ve done a great job in the feel in those controls during combat too. You’ve got your ranged attacks, your melee attack, special weapon attack, and my favorite…a pounce attack. You can use that particular attack to leap over and land in the middle of the foot soldiers of King Zarkon and do some nice area damage or better yet you can snatch an aerial enemy flying overhead and and smash them to the ground. You can stop in your destruction and aim where you will pounce too by the way. But your Lion can be knocked out of commission of course and then you will have to go on foot for 10 seconds, trying to survive long enough for your Lion to be recharged. Not as easy as it sounds, trust me.

The vehicles, like Doom Tanks and foot soldiers from the early episodes of the Voltron series are all here for you to go against and like I mentioned up top, the game has original animation in between levels, but it also has taken the original music from the series and revamped it a bit. It sounds really good and it is just my inner geek but I had a big smile on my face when Lance popped up on the side of the screen praising me when I racked up a number of chain hits on the enemy. I kind of felt like I should have saluted him or something.

When you reach the end of a ‘level’ it’s time to face one of King Zarkon’s suped up Robeasts, thanks to Witch Haggar’s evil spell. You’ll have to wear down the Robeast in Lion form, and I bet in Multiplayer this is incredibly awesome. Then when it is on the ropes you will form Voltron by way of context button presses during the original animated clip.

After forming the legendary Voltron you will get your chance to attack, picking from the four options of special weapons, you will have to press the button at the right moment to unleash devastation on the Robeast. The Robeast will get a chance to retaliate and you need to press the correct button to avoid it’s attack.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe is available right now on the PSN for $9.99 and X-Box Live Arcade for 800 points. It’s a fun title and if you want to join me in the game for some multiplayer, just send a friend request to Unicron2005 on Xbox Live. Speaking of Xbox Live, if you want to dress up your Avatar in some Voltron related goodness they are available in the marketplace!

Searching through the alleys for useful knowledge in the city of Nostalgia. Huge cinema fanatic and sometimes carrier of the flame for the weirding ways of 80s gaming, toys, and television. When his wife lets him he is quite happy sitting in the corner eating buckets of beef jerky.